A group of Santa Barbara Boy Scouts hiking deep in the wilderness of the central Sierra Nevada came across a man who, by all appearances, wasn’t supposed to be there.
“He just looked like — basically looked like a homeless guy,” said Scoutmaster M.J. Hey. “He was struggling a bit.”
The Santa Barbara–based troop, Troop 26, was on day four of a seven-day backpacking trip through the Emigrant Wilderness, a part of Stanislaus National Forest that borders Yosemite National Park. Nine younger scouts, all around 12 years old, were accompanied by five adult leaders. They were carrying 40-pound packs, navigating through lakes and meadows, and practicing the same skills that generations of Scouts before them had been taught…